Failure Brings Success

Jubilation, determination, motivation, whatever you call it, when you achieve something in sport it is an amazing feeling and something that is hard to repeat. I can't think of many other things that can bring about such heartache and such joy. Having the drive and the discipline to work towards that incredible feeling of accomplishment is a gift in itself.

In my tennis match tonight I kept getting ahead in the game and then giving away crucial, game winning points. It was frustrating and I couldn't figure out why. That's when it struck me that even professional athletes suffer setbacks and heartaches, sometimes by as little as losing a race by 1/100th of a second. But that is what makes them become great, learning from those failures, remembering those failures and using them to push themselves in their next big event. It's those moments of failure that give them the strength they need to find a way to get to those moments of pure joy.

I may fail, I may not always put my best foot forward in a match, but as long as I get out there and keep taking those steps to make myself better and learn from my mistakes, I will get to that moment of pure joy, that moment where I achieve great things. It may not be in front of a large crowd, or any crowd for that matter, but that won't change my achievement or take away any of it's power.

I've learned to embrace failure, to let it become a part of me. Failure seems to breed success and if that is what it takes to become the best that I can be then bring on the failures and frustrations because I have learned how to turn them into success.